Plant-Fish

Coastal manager’s struggle globally both with declining stocks of large predatory fish and decreases in "foundation species"; the submerged vegetation that forms the basis for many coastal ecosystems. The Baltic Sea Centre takes part in the project Plant-Fish, which aims to examine whether and how the vegetation and predatory fish benefit each other through positive feedback mechanisms. The results are expected to provide guidelines for management leading to more coastal fish, increased natural values and enhances ecosystem resistance to eutrophication processes.

Resent research in the Baltic Sea indicates that two environmental issues may be intrinsically linked; availability of vegetated recruitment habitats appears to limit large predatory fish, whereas predatory fish indirectly control nuisance algae that otherwise smother vegetation.

Research on how vegetation and fish facilitate each other
The project Plant-Fish will explore the hypothesis that vegetation and predatory fish facilitate each other via a positive feedback loop, which enhances ecosystem health. To test this hypothesis, we will first assess the effect of vegetation on coastal fish stocks using statistical modelling based on fish surveys from the last decade along the whole Swedish east coast. We will then assess if predation from adult fish benefits vegetation, and whether this feeds back positively on juvenile fish, using a detailed community survey along the central Baltic Sea coast. Finally, we will experimentally test if vegetation and predatory fish together strengthen ecosystem resilience to eutrophication.

Facts Plant-Fish

Plantfish is a co-operation between researchers at the Baltic Sea Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, University of Groningen, AquaBiota and the Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences at Stockholms University. The project is financed by the Swedish research council FORMAS.